Saturday, February 2, 2013

Fla. Anti-Islam Bill Introduced Again, Called 'Camouflaged Bigotry' (Tampa Trib)The neutrally titled and worded "Application of Foreign Law" bill, which applies to family law provisions, is nothing more than camouflaged bigotry. It is based on model language drafted by a controversial attorney, David Yerushalmi, who has a record of espousing anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and racist views.

Backgrounder:Profile of David YerushalmiYerushalmi is head of the anti-Islam hate group Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE), which once offered a policy proposal that would make "adherence to Islam" punishable by 20 years in prison, called for the immediate deportation of all non-citizen Muslims and urged Congress to declare war on the "Muslim Nation," which SANE defined as "all Muslims." The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) named Yerushalmi a member of the "anti-Muslim inner circle." Outside of his anti-Islam activism Yerushalmi is notable for saying, "There is a reason the founding fathers did not give women or black slaves the right to vote." [Source:On Race: A Tentative Discussion, The McAdam Report, p. 7]

CAIR Community Toolkit:Securing Religious LibertyIn 2012, CAIR released a community toolkit designed to assist those seeking to preserve America's ideal of religious pluralism in the face of the unconstitutional anti-Islam bills.

CAIR:Immigrant Restriction Group Argues for Easier Path to Denaturalization"The process can already be a very difficult process and require legal action taken on the part of the person wanting to become a citizen," said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Muslims have faced a large amount of discrimination since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the ensuing U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Streamlining the process of denaturalization could lead to even more discrimination as well as abuse from government officials, Hooper added. "Once somebody is a citizen, there should be a very high standard to revoke that," he said. "Otherwise this could lead to misuse by this government or any other future government."